Individual-Based Model to Simulate Crowd Dynamics Using Artificial Potential Fields

Crowd dynamics has been investigated for several years by many researchers. Computer based models prove to offer the optimum way to simulate the crowd dynamics especially in situations that need simulation of realistic behaviour such as in the emergency situations. In this paper, an individual-based model to simulate the behaviour of human crowd is developed. Using the artificial potential fields, a new approach to link the behaviour of each member in the crowd and the components of the environment is presented. Generalized Morse potential (GMP) is used to describe the interaction forces between each member and the environment on one side and amongst the crowd members on the other side to add realistic flavour to the predicted crowd behaviour along with simple calculations that are required especially for crowds with large number of individuals. Numerical results that match the observations of human crowd behaviour prove the efficiency and applicability of the model .